Tap into your phone calendar and make a date for Monday, March 6, because that's when former One Life to Live star Hillary B. Smith will be reprising her role as legal eagle Nora Buchanan on General Hospital.
News first broke that the Emmy-winning actress would be heading to Port Charles in January, shortly after ABC regained the rights to OLTL and All My Children from Prospect Park and it became clear the network was free to resurrect whatever former characters from those shows they chose. Rumor has it Smith is just the first character from the now-defunct soaps who might be popping onto GH.
"It was this fun, out-of-the-blue thing that seemed to work out for everyone," the actress told TV Line of receiving the summons from the powers that be, including her former OLTL boss, Frank Valentini, who now executive produces GH.
Smith has been sworn to secrecy when it comes to future storyline, but her choice of wording -- and the fact that it's all past tense -- makes it seem as if Nora won't be sticking around in Port Charles for long.
"I can't get into any specifics. All I can say is I was asked to come to Port Charles for some sort of legal thing, and that's what I went and did!" she shares, adding that it was a bit of a challenge to jump back into the shoes of a character she hasn't played since 2013.
"One thing I had to keep in mind was that Nora was a listener and a watcher. Even though I am a listener and watcher, I'm more of a talker than Nora is!" she says with a laugh. "I had to make sure that I was really listening. Also, I'm much more judgmental than Nora is. Nora believes that everyone has a right to a fair trial, a right to representation, where I would be like, ‘Are you kidding? Guilty!' There's an impartiality and a passion for the law that drives Nora to believe that regardless of what happened, whatever the client wants, the client deserves -- and should get."
For more from Smith on her upcoming GH stint, check out TV Line's full interview here.
What do you think brings Nora Buchanan to Port Charles? How do you feel about the possibility of her role being very brief? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
